Identity - Who am I - John the Baptist
Identity - Who am I • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Who am I? A great question to ponder about ourselves. Depending on the period of life, we might get different answers. I am a child. I am a mom or dad. I am a grandparent. I am a scholar. I am a professional. I am retired.
Some might find their identity in their profession: I am a teacher. I am a pilot. I am a carpenter. I am a homemaker.
Depending on what has been spoken to you, your identity might be: I am special. I am worthless. I am smart. I am dumb. I am a mistake. I am enough. I am not good enough. If I am not careful, I can identify with a few of those, but that is not my identity - that is not your identity.
Everywhere I look, I see people struggling with their identity. Unless we know who we are, we will likely never find satisfaction in what we do. Let me say that again:
Until we know who we are, we won’t find satisfaction in what we do.
Purpose is found in identity. If we get that backwards, any purpose will then define our identity. Let me give you an example:
This is a nail sticking out of a piece of wood. I need a tool to sick this nail further into the wood. What tool do I need? - A hammer. I have a tool here that I will use to “hammer” in the nail. It must therefore then be a hammer right? No - it’s a crescent wrench. Just because I use it like a hammer doesn’t make it a hammer. In fact, to use it as a hammer is both ineffective, will damage the tool and robs the tool of it’s purpose to tighten nuts and bolts.
If I start with purpose before identity, any purpose will define my identity. In some cases, we can be led to believe a lie about who we are if we listen to other’s opinion about who they think we are.
Today, we are going to look at John the Baptist. Like last week, we are going to read quite a bit of scripture to get a good sense of who John is, how he arrived at his identity and how he resisted the world’s version of who they thought he was. Let’s start with before his birth in Luke 1:11.
Zechariah was a priest and on temple duty when he was selected to go into the temple and burn incense before the Lord.
11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.
12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.
13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.
14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth,
15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.
16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.
17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Before John was even born an angel prophesied to Zechariah about his son:
He was to be called John.
He would be a joy and a delight
Many would rejoice because of his birth
He would be great in the sight of the Lord.
He would never drink wine
He would be filled with the Holy Spirit before birth
He would bring people back to the Lord.
He would prepare people for the Lord.
These are qualities of the man John was to become. These are qualities and purposes of his identity in the Lord.
Let’s jump down to verse 76 and read what Zechariah said of John after his birth:
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.
Zechariah speaks over John as his earthly father by repeating what God had already spoken over John’s life:
He would be called a prophet
He would prepare a way for the Lord
He would give understanding about salvation
And John grew into those qualities and purposes of his identity in the Lord.
You might be saying…pastor, those things sound a lot like things that John does, I thought you said that the things we do are not our identity. I did.
Let’s look again at my crescent wrench. It’s identity as a tool is a crescent wrench. We recognize it as that because of the little wheel, the parallel jaws that adjust when we spin the gear. There are qualities about it that tells us what it is. These qualities are determined by the maker of this tool, not by the tool or the user of the tool. I might say of this wrench. You will one day loosen and re-tighten the skid plates on a snow blower so a pastor can clear his driveway down to the pavement and not slip and break a rib. If it insists on being used as a hammer, it will not fulfill it’s purpose which was determined by it’s identity.
We are created by God just as he designed. Our identity has been given by him. If we embrace and live out our identity in Christ, we will then be able to fulfill our purpose for which he has place us here for. That is what Zechariah is saying of John - Son, we have been made a promise by God and you are a part of that promise.
One more little side note...
Fathers - like Zechariah, we have the role of speaking an identity into our children. We will either speak God’s truth over them and give them a foundation in which they can find their purpose or not. It is never to late to speak God’s truth over them. And even if we speak the truth of God’s Word over them, it is up to them to live it out.
Let’s turn to John 1 starting in verse 6. John the disciple is writing about John the baptist:
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.
8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
At the time of the writing, there were still some discrepancies and differences of opinion about who this John in the wilderness was. This clears it up. John was a witness to testify. He was not the one being testified about…let’s jump to verse 19 where John the Baptist is being questioned about who he is.
19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was.
20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”
John - Who are you? John says - Well, I am not the Messiah.
He starts from a place of who he is not. Sometimes that is where we should start. We are not gods, we are not the messiah. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we are also not worthless or not good enough.
God’s word tells us in 1 Peter 1:18-19 that we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, so I am not condemned.
They ask him a few more questions...
21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”
There will be times where someone will try to label you or tell you that you are something that you are not. If you don’t know who you are, you might be tempted to agree. If John didn’t know who he was, he very easily could have agreed…”you know what, I hadn’t thought of it that way. I do seem to be preaching like Elijah. I could be him.” Instead his answer is definitive… “I am not.”
The conversation continues...
22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’ ”
John quotes the prophecy about himself. The one that was written by Isaiah and was spoken over him at his birth by his father. Confused, the question him further...
24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
John understood his place. He understood that even though he was getting all this attention, attention that would have been easy to soak up and take in, he points them in the direction of the coming Messiah.
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’
31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.
33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’
34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”
The moment has come and John has come to the apex of what he had been called to do. He preached repentance, he baptized, he kept proclaiming the that Messiah was coming and Jesus has finally been revealed to him and he does not hesitate to testify. Look what happens next...
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.
36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
It’s not very often when someone who has a following will essentially give up that following and tell his people to follow someone else. Just look at the Pharisees and Sadducees who saw that people were following Jesus instead of them. They had Jesus killed because of losing influence and yet here is John telling those following him that they should follow Jesus.
If John’s identity was wrapped up in his preaching, baptizing and having followers, he would have had a hard time pointing his followers to Jesus. he would have done anything he could to maintain his identity. Instead, he rejoiced and found peace in losing his influence and followers.
John’s journey could have been much different. He could have listened to the crowds and the religious leaders. In human terms, he would have been successful as he spoke and gained influence. Instead, he knew who he was - he knew his identity and from that identity flowed his purpose and direction.
Do you know who you are and who you are not? Are you easily persuaded to be something someone else wants you to be or tells you that you are? Let me speak God’s Word over you this morning:
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
You are chosen.
You are a special possession.
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
You are Free.
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
You are more than a conqueror.
If anyone, including your own thoughts, try to tell you differently, remember what God says about you.